Turkey won't stop Syrian refugees reaching Europe - official

Turkey, faced with a new wave of Syrian refugees and 29 dead soldiers in Idlib, will no longer stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe, a senior Turkish official said late on Thursday as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan chaired an emergency security meeting.

An air strike by Syrian regime forces in Syria's northwest Idlib region killed 29 Turkish soldiers and wounded dozens, the local governor in the southeastern province of Hatay said separately early on Friday.

In anticipation of the imminent arrival of refugees from Idlib, Turkish police, coast guard and border security officials have been ordered to stand down on refugees' land and sea crossings, a Turkish official told Reuters.

Turkey's governing AK Party spokesman Omer Celik in a CNN Turk interview said that the country's refugee policy hasn't changed, but it will no longer be able to hold refugees.

The murderous [Assad] regime and ones encouraging them will pay heavily for this treacherous act, Celik added.

Turkey has been hosting more than 3.7 million migrants since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011.

Syrian regime leader Bashar al Assad's forces, supported by relentless Russian air strikes, have pushed hard in recent months to retake the last opposition-held region in northwest Syria after nine years of war that has displaced millions and killed hundreds of thousands.

Erdogan held an emergency meeting late on Thursday with his staff due to the attack, two Turkish officials said.

Turkish and Russian officials held talks in Ankara on Thursday. Two previous rounds in Ankara and Moscow have not yielded a sought ceasefire deal.